Neat Little Smokeless Build

[smokeeter]

I put together another smokeless muzzy, This is more of a conversion rather than a scratch build.
It started life as a 45-70 which is obviously rated for smokeless application and the breech plug I used is an ASG 209 plug , also designed for smokeless loads.
It's a nice handy maneuverable little rifle for stalking or tree stand application and more than capable of shooting out to 300 yrds.
It's a CVA Scout single shot break action rifle, complete with removable muzzle brake ,fluted barrel and integral one piece scope mount.
This one weighs in a 8 1/2 lbs. scoped, which is considerably less then my bolt action rifles.
I made a loading tube out of a 45-70 shell casing that was drilled thru and cut shorter to allow powder and bullet to get past the muzzle brake , the brake had to be rebored to fit the tube.
I plan on using this sabotless so bullets need to be sized to fit the bore and this one requires .450 dia. bullets , but saboted 40 cal. loads can be used with the brake removed.
This one will also be shooting more conservative loads, with expectations of muzzle velocities of 2500 fps.

 

[rjg333]

That is a great little build, good work sir

 

[smokeeter]

A little update on this build, the Fed 209A primers sealed perfectly on the front of the primer with no leakage . I didn't really like the idea of removing the spent primer with a prong and the 45-70 extractor wouldn't work on the 209 primers so I made a custom extractor for this . It worked perfectly.

 

[smokeeter]

Got to shake out a few cob webs the other day. Took the converted Scout out and tried a few different loads
I had good results with some .40 cal. 200 gr. Noslers that I used with some .45 cal. blue Harvester sabots.
I also tried some resized 250 gr. XTP's sabotless, the first shot was alittle low , I was using the same load as the saboted load but I bumped up my booster and it raised the POA to be in the same ballpark as the .40 's.
I decided to add an extra step at the bench to try to avoid mishaps, my procedure now is to lay out my shooting components for each individual sequence in a small tray to keep track of what goes down the barrel and it lets me know what's in , what's out and where I am in the sequence. I also put the empty vials back in the tray . This seems like a trivial step but it 100 % keeps you on track.
I'd also like to reiterate the importance of witness marks on your ramrod and when unsure be sure to check.
I've been at this game a long time and even seasoned shooters can get distracted which could have catastrophic results.
Lets be careful out there.